CONTRACTS::. 

Shell gives Hydro, Mongstad Torry-base job
Shell assigned Hydro and a Norwegian coastal base Mongstad an important platform-supply job once held by Scottish base Torry, now certain to face consequences.  Production chemicals for nine Shell platforms will now ship to the Brent and Northern area via coastal Norway. The agreement follows a trial period during which money was saved shipping from the Norwegian bases, which are three times closer than the big Torry base, at just eight hours steaming time. The municipalities of Bergen and Kristiansund are seen as the winners, judging by a beaming mayor of Bergen. Aberdeen loses jobs and more, judging by comments from unions OilPort.net talked with. Hydro said it could earn up to $3 million a year, plus savings for sharing platform-supply boats, one of which it will have to rent.

ALSTOM Norway to clean up Chinese coal
ALSTOM in Norway will deliver air-treatment plant for sulphur dioxide handling to a big coal-burning facility in China for $6.2 million. The installation will cut by 95 prosent the fallout from coal in one of China's prettier coastal zones. Guodian Technology & Environmental Group Co. Ltd. owns the coal-fired facility. ALSTOM Norway's contributions to Chinese power and industry now total $54.5 million. ALSTOM Norway shipments of similar technology to the Middle East have also begun.

Shell hires AMEC to design Bacton upgrade
Shell awarded oilfield construction firm AMEC, the $46-million job of designing and delivering a gas reception facility for the Bacton natural gas terminal, Norfolk, part of the big Balgzand-to-Bacton pipeline, the BBL, that'll transport gas from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom. Shell will manage and commission the new facility owned by BBL VoF, an international consortium of gas transmission companies. AMEC will draw up plans for four process trains featuring 5.3-megawatt heaters, filtration, flow-control and metering, a central control building and a 450-metre tie-in to the National Grid Transco network. Construction starts right away.

Kent gets in on valve action for AMEC, Vetco
Kent Introl Valves awarded a contract worth a combined $1.3 million for the supply of control valves to projects off West Africa and in the U.K.-sector of the North Sea. The veteran supplier will furnish AMEC with $652,000 worth of kit at the contractor’s unspecified work site in the North Sea, while $596,000 in valves will be readied for Bergesen’s floating production, storage and offloading vessel, the FPSO Berge Helene. The ship will operate for Woodside Petroleum at the Chinguetti field, offshore Mauritania.

Hamworthy LNG options re-gasify into orders
Marine and offshore fluid handler, Hamworthy plc, became the supply chain bellwether for the maritime liquefied-natural-gas business, confirming options from an order in December 2004 from Samsung Heavy Industries has have lead to four more orders for its re-gasification system, its LNG RS. Last winter’s contracts included 11 option ship sets, with shipyard options. The orders bring the confirmed LNG-RS orders of Hamworthy to 12 ship sets and reflect a partial trend toward cost savings provided via diesel propulsion with LNG-RS.

EXPLORATION::.

TGS-NOPEC , OHM begin Barents survey
Geophysics outfit TGS-NOPEC and Aberdeen-based OHM began a "controlled source electromagnetic" survey, or CSEM, of the Norwegian Barents Sea in an endeavour long awaited by oil company planners. The survey centres on TGS-NOPEC's multi-client 2D and 3D-seismic database in the area and includes a first "project by project" collaboration agreement for the electromagnetism of OHM. The method identifies highly resistive bodies like hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs in the subsurface, "potentially helping to reduce exploration risk for oil and gas companies." The results are due out this summer.

Oilexco testing others like Brenda, Balmoral
Canadian outfit, Oilexco, started its U.K.-sector campaign of 2005 with gushing hydrocarbons in the area of Brenda, the company’s big area oilfield. Well 15/25a-13Y flowed to 4,200 barrels per day of 39-degree API oil through a 44/64 choke at 501 pounds per square inch. Pressure came from 44 feet of perforations made to access the 57 feet of net oil pay.

Northern to have a go at Sicily and Po
Northern Petroleum, no relation to the Norwegian outfit buying blocks in Brazil, gained regulatory approval for drilling campaigns offshore Sicily and onshore Italy, in the western Poe River valley, where natural gas abounds. In the Po Valley's Nibbia licence, Northern is targeting shallow “Tertiary channel gas plays and deep oil potential”, similar to others being actively explored by BG and ENI, neighbours on nearby blocks. Meanwhile, offshore Sicily, near the Tunisian border, 3,000 square kilometres are “believed to hold the potential for finding very large fields.”

Eni, Paladin find wall of oil in Tunisia
Eni made a fourth oil discovery in Tunisia, where a tieback to local infrastructure already looks like a speedy outcome. Paladin, onboard with seven percent, said the well discovered “an aggregate 48 metres of net oil and gas condensate pay and 10 metres of net gas pay in the Acacus and Tannezuft formations over a gross interval of approximately 300 metres at depths of 3,200 to 3,500 metres.” Early tests had oil flowing to 2,800 barrels per day and 15.6 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. Production infrastructure is just 13 kilometres away.

Statoil strikes out in Barents Sea duster
Statoil made a dusty wildcat of the Guovca prospect on which so many hopes for Barents Sea drilling were riding. Well 7131/4-1 probed late Jurassic sandstone and found rock reminiscent of area finds but no riches, while “the reason for the lack of hydrocarbon-filling” will be studied. Triassic age rocks 1,270 metres below the seabed were struck, and now the well will be plugged and forgotten. The dry well was drilled by high-specification rig, Eirik Raude, in water 331 m deep and 115 km north-east of northernmost Norway. The Raude will now move to the Norwegian Sea for well 6302/6-1.

Hydro hails Astero find and 3,000-bpd test
Hydro and partners in the Fram field have a "promising" discovery in the North Sea, where appraisal drilling of the Astero prospect gave way to a find 3,226 metres down. The Deepsea Trym semmi-submersible was said to be exploring with well 35/11-13 in water 350 metres deep at the time of the find. Drilling ran to the end of April, when the rig began production testing for results of 3,150 barrels per day.
The size of the find has Hydro managers talking about expanding the Fram field and conections to the Troll C facility. Exxon, Statoil, Idemitsu and Gaz de France join Hydro in block 35/11, 120 kilometres off Florø, southwestern Norway.

Desire dots Falklands with plays, prospects
Desire Petroleum marked seven drilling locations in the North Falkland Basin that together point to eleven prospects that could contain two billion barrels of recoverable oil. Numerous "less-well-defined" leads have been spotted, but require work before becoming prospects. "The more we work on the 3D seismic data, the more prospectivity we see in this basin. The identification of these five new prospects means that in the planned three well drilling campaign, all of the wells will have dual objectives," Desire chief executive, Ian Duncan, said in a statement.

FIELD DEVELOPMENT::.

Grove, Sterling stir memory of past Romania
The historical Romanian oilfields are being keenly observed again, as London-listed Grove Energy Ltd. and Sterling Resources Ltd. ready the Cetatuia exploration well for the deepest drilling seen in the Balkan country. Investors were pepped for imminent use of the drill bit down to 2,700 metres and a test of two targets in Miocene and middle-Triassic strata. Rig and mast are on-hand for 35 days of drilling that has cost $1.2 million. The Well is the first in the 1.5-million-acre Craiova Concession in southwest Romania, by the Bulgarian border. Meanwhile, 20 leads are sited and seismic is planned or 2005.

BP commits to spending in Egypt concessions
BP committed to spending $600 million over seven years by extendeding concessions in Egypt's Gulf of Suez, where the Merged Concession Agreement and South Gharib stays lengthen 20 and 10 years. Exploration, infrastructure upgrades and renewals are planned.

TECHNOLOGY::.

Roxar launches reservoir modelling via Linux
Oil company experts who prefer Linux operating systems can now get Roxar’s flagship 3D reservoir modelling software, the trademark IRAP RMS. The Linux 62-bit version is cheaper, takes on large data flows faster and is a giant step forward “even by Roxar’s standards”. Roxar already offers the Tempest reservoir simulation over Linux.

U.K. electromagnetic "seismic" nears glory
U.K. outfit, Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping, or OHM plc, and its electromagnetic sounding is short-listed to win the United Kingdom's most prestigious engineering prize. OHM is neck-and-neck with a mobile-phone tracking system and another wireless chip in a race to win The Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award for the best in British innovation. OHM's seafloor mapping system confirms oil and gas deposits, saving millions of exploration dollars. Shedding any of the $50-million price tag for deepwater, hostile-environment drilling would be a victory. In OHM's version of electromagnetic sounding, “A horizontal electric dipole source is towed 30 metres above the sea floor, transmitting a low frequency signal into the earth ... higher resistivity shows the presence of oil and gas ... for the exact location of the deposit.”

GAS/ENERGY::.

Ocean Power readies revolution off Portugual
Edinburgh-based Ocean Power Delivery signed a first commercial order to build the world's first wave-farm for harnessing the energy of troughing waves. Backed by investors Hydro, from Norway, plus the U.K. Energy Ministry, Sustainable Asset Management, the Carbon Trust and 3i, Edinburgh-based OPD will set up off the Portuguese coast. The wave technology, dubbed Pelamis, will produce up to 2.25 megawatts of power with each of its P-750 wave-power generation units, which look like large red sea snakes. When finished in 2006, the Póvoa de Varzim installation will have cost Portuguese utility Enersis at least €8 million. The farm will supply power to 1,500 Portuguese homes, sparing us all 6,000 tonnes of airborne carbon from plants that burn.
Meanwhile, Hydro declared Friday that a Letter of Intent for 30 more Pelamis machines by 2007 could create wave-farms (20MW) all along Portugal. And OPD has received calls from Scottish Power, which wants a wave farm in the United Kingdom.

Vestas's 41 giants to power Peloponesos
Danish wind-turbine builder, Vestas, received an order for 41 units from Eoliki Panachaikou SA, which will operate a wind farm near the town of Patras, the Peloponnese, Greece. The V52-850 kW wind turbines come with a five year warranty and service. The wind power plant will be delivered in July 2005, with operations starting in 2006. Eoliki is mainly owned by Cesa Hellas SA, itself owned by Spanish Corporación Eólica CESA, owner of several wind farms in Spain.

Victoria bolsters stake in Siberian gas bear
Victoria Oil and Gas plc raised its stake in a Siberian gas and condensate field 90 percent and announced drilling set for June 2005, when the West Medvezhye field looks set for expansion. The field is in the Yamal-Nenets region, where the world stores 20 percent of its gas reserves. Victoria picked up 15 percent of Medvezhye, which means The Bears, in a deal for a million of its stock.

COMPANY NEWS/FINANCIAL::.

Hydro ups aims in Shtokman gas to 20%
Norwegian operator Hydro is after a 20-percent stake in the Shtokman gas field in the High Barents Sea. A report from Moscow said the oil company had upped its goals in the giant gas field from the 15 percent it had been seeking. A procession of oil companies have tried striking a deal with Gazprom for a share of Shtokman in exchange for technology and marketing arrangements. Statoil sources told OilPort.net that its technology was a clear leader for the offshore project.

Centrica sells British Gas Connections
Centrica agreed to sell gas-transport business British Gas Connections Ltd. to Kellen Venture Ltd. for $165 million. BGCL owns and operates mostly residential gas pipelines, on which it delivered operating profits of around $7.7 million in 2004 on turnover of $16 million. Kellen Venture is 75-percent owned by Terra Firma and 25-percent by East Surrey Holdings.

E.ON gas sales down — volumes, prices up
German gas giant Ruhrgas E.ON AG is sending out more gas than ever, nudging out competition in a newly competitive market for the raw materials of energy. Company gas exports were up 34 percent in 2004, although crude oil, heating oil and coal now cost 42-percent, 36.5-percent and 27-percent more than last year, with untold financial effects on 2005's numbers. In 2004, company turnover was down $379 million to $18.2 billion. Ruhrgas chairman, Dr. Burckhard Bergmann, told jouralists in Essen Wednesday that Ruhrgas's 58-billion-cubic-metre gas send-out in 2004 was four-percent better than in 2003, good for 641 billion kilowatts of power.

Smedvig, Keppel FELS in partnership to build new semi-tender rig
Norwegian rig operator Smedvig has ordered a new $105-M semi-tender rig from Keppel FELS in Singapore. Smedvig will fork out $33M total. Keppel will build and own the hull of the rig, while Smedvig will own the derrick equipment set. Smedvig will also market and manage the unit for ten years. Under the agreement, Smedvig has an option to purchase the semi-submersible hull during the ten-year period at a pre-agreed price. The rig will be based on a similar but improved design and specification as Smedvig's West Setia rig, and is scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2006.
The new unit is targeted for deepwater drilling operations in combination with floating wellhead platforms in benign waters.

Schlumberger eyes demand in Diamould buy
Schlumberger acquired the assets of Diamould Ltd, a specialist in electrical, hydraulic and fibre-optic connections from Cumbria, the United Kingdom.
“The increasing application of intelligent completion systems is driving demand for reliable electrical, hydraulic and fibre-optic connectors,” Schlumberger’s Web site points out. Diamould’s 70 staff and connector designs will be the core of a “centre of excellence” for all connector requirements.

Revus buys ExxonMobil shares in Hydro find
Norwegian independent, Revus Energy AS, bought ExxonMobil's 25-percent interest in two acreage plots "to be carved out from production license 90 in block 35/11. While the price was disclosed, one of the two areas includes discovery 35/11-2, known as Fram B, and the other area includes a prospect named Astero where Hydro has just announced a find.

Northern Oil pays $85M for three Brazil blocks
Oslo-listed Northern Oil ASA agreed to buy three offshore licenses in Brazil for $85 million. The Brazilian Camamu and Almada Basin contain the Manati gas field, slated for production in 2006 production, where Northern picks up 10 percent in exchange for drilling five exploration wells in 2005. The company agrees to pay its share of dry-hole and testing cost for the five exploration wells, delineation wells plus infrastructure construction in the Manati gas field.

CGG earnings, backlog grow on offshore work
Compagnie Générale de Géophysique said its primary seismic survey business broke even in the first quarter of 2005, marking a $8.9 million improvement over the same span a year ago on more oceangoing work. CGG numbers showed revenues were up 25 percent, while a record $485-million backlog, 60 percent more than this time last year, as of 1 May 2005 boded well for seismic work this year. Interestingly enough, revenues from land surveys was down eight percent, while offshore work earned 104 percent more year-on-year. Some $90 million were earned at sea this past accounting period.

EMPLOYMENT MARKET::.

Former BP boss in new Norway company
Former BP Norway boss, Scott Kerr, will take a starring role in new-start E&P outfit, Noreco, which aims to raise $70 million in its market debut. Kerr and company could go public in as soon as two years, and gain accreditation as a licensee within the year. The Wyoming-educated oilman told Stavanger Aftenbladet the famous Norwegian oil town made progress possible. "I saw the job ad in your paper so I applied," Kerr was quoted as saying.

Peak seeks crew, as expansion quickens
Aberdeen-based well-completions and performance outfit, Peak Group, is expanding tenfold in Houston due to demand for all its services and it must hire engineers, quickly. The move into 1 Greenway Plaza, in Houston, follows an increase in orders that'll see it render 30 wells this year. Demand for its well-management, software and consultants has surged, requiring expansion in the Scottish and Texas oil capitals.
Peak's staff of 73 will swell by 15 after the company headhunt. Available jobs include well-team leaders, senior drilling engineers, drilling superintendents, completions engineers, technical assistants and well-test specialists. The posts are in Aberdeen, Perth, Dubai and Houston. In Texas, a senior drilling manager and two engineers are sought.

French Exxon staff walk off jobs en masse
Outsourced work to low-cost lands had Norway’s unionized Esso workers cheering on striking Exxon workers in France, according to the Norwegian Federation of Offshore Workers’ Unions, the OFS. The union Web page posted a statement purportedly form the Esso Norway Employee’s Union alleging the oil company’s policies were counter-productive. “ExxonMobil employees in Norway are also suffering under the same conditions as you, with cuts in budgets and  removal of employees,” the message said. All Exxon locales — refineries, chemical plants, offices, platforms — were to strike for from 24 to 40 hours, and a production stop at downstream facilities was planned. Worker demands included “real investments in all plants” and a recount of jobs.

PRODUCTION/OTHER NEWS::.

Report: Room for more mercury srubbers
Mercury scrubbers in China, Europe (including Russia) and Japan remove more of the toxic substance from emissions than the United States emits in a year, according to the Illinois-based McIlvaine Company. U.S. power plants emit 48 tons of mercury per year, while power plants outside the U.S. remove more than 50 tons per year, McIlvaine claims, adding that the catch of mercury outside the U.S. is expected to increase to over 80 tons by 2010. Worldwide, 291,000 megawatts of coal-fired power generation capacity is equipped with scrubbers.

Insurgents kill Iraqi oil-ministry official
Ali Hameed, a high-level official in Iraq's oil ministry, was shot dead in Baghdad this week, a policeman was quoted as saying. He was killed outside his home on his way to work, according to wire reports. Hameed's death follows the similar killing of a foreign ministry official last Saturday